At Think Tutoring, I get this comment every day. The student would say, “I don’t know where to start.” She would be sitting at her desk, hand on her head, and tapping her pencil. My response, “We need to create a graphic organizer.”
There are many graphic organizers available to students. You can just GOOGLE it. My favorite is a web or cluster chart especially for middle school students. This is the perfect graphic organizer to develop a well-written five paragraph essay.
Tips/Strategies to Help your Child Write:
- Graphic Organizers: Types of graphic organizers include webs, cluster charts, cause and effect
charts, sensory charts, pro v. con, Venn diagrams, t-charts, and more. One of these is bound to help your child organize her thoughts. - Outline: Outlines are rather boring for kids to do; however, parents know how to outline. This is a very common strategy for teachers and parents. You cannot go wrong with it.
- Make a Thesis: A thesis is the answer to your essay question. I tell my students to make sure to add examples (paragraph topics) into your thesis statement. You have now paved the way for a well-developed topic sentence and essay.
- Mind map: Can’t think of examples? Use a mind map to write down everything that you know on a given topic. This will help put the information down on paper for you to gather your ideas.
Think Tutoring provides these tips and strategies in both our language arts and study skills programs. Call today for more information on how we can help your child’s writing and organization skills. We would love to help.